¡Hola familia!
Glad to hear from everyone! The weeks are just flying by… I can believe its already almost OCTOBER!! That means E’s birthday is coming up! What the 5th?!? Dang. Well, this week was awesome. Transfers are almost here,(4th of October) but don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere… yet.
Lets see. To start off, we have been really focusing this week on Lizett’s family. She is on of our recent converts that was baptized maybe a month and a half ago. A little background on the Callapiña family… The dad is 42 and hardcore catholic. The mom, we found out, is a member! Completely inactive... for now. Lizett is 17 and the oldest sibling. Wendy comes next, at 12 years old. Then Alexandra, 11, and finally the littlest sister – I don’t remember her name. Hahaha, but she’s like 3 or something. Their family owns a convenience store, and they always invite us to everything from drinks… to dish soap. Haha. But they are super great, and the only reason the mom “can’t” come back to church is because she has to watch over their store. In the back of the store and on the second story is where they live. So. Here’s what we did, and what happened with them this week. We went to their house on Friday for a FHE. Elder Whittaker and I decided to make them pizza! So, we bought all the ingredients to make a BBQ chicken pizza. We bought the chicken, made the dough, graded the cheese, and made everything with them at their house. Here in Perú, not a lot of people have ovens. Including their family. So, what some people have as a business, are giant ovens. We took the pizza to one of these ovens and cooked it their. They charged us 1.5 sóles. That’s like, 50 cents or so. So, we picked up the pizza after 30 minutes and took it back and ate it while we watched… we watched… “En Busqueda de la Verdad.” I don’t remember what it is in English… Something like the search for truth. Anyway, it’s a movie about the apostasy and how Wilford Woodruff searched until he heard from two of the first missionaries and found the true church. We watched that and Wendy looked at me and said, “That’s how were supposed to be baptized?” (The scene in the movie when Wilford is baptized in the ice water) I told her, “Yeah, but in warmer water than that!” Her answer kind of took me back, she responded, “Well, the water doesn’t matter to me…” So that was a good experience. We wanted to watch the Joseph Smith movie, the one they show at Temple Square, so the next day we stopped by and watched that. We even got the dad to watch with us. He sat throughout the whole movie, watching intently. Afterward, he had a ton of questions and we answered them with gladness. He just doesn’t understand baptism yet. We’ll get there, I’m not worried. But, the night before was quite different. The dad came home, hammered. Wayy too drunk to really know what was going on. The parents had a big fight the night before and so he went to drink. Bummer. Before I realized how drunk he was, I asked if he was gonna stay with us. He said that he was on another planet right now, and that he would come back later. I, feeling really bad, watched as he walked out and left. Where they live, you find a lot of drunks, fights, and yelling. Right as we were leaving, a fight broke out right across the narrow street, and one guy got his head smashed into the car, leaving a gnarly gash in his head. Someone called the police, who arrived way too late, after they all disappeared. I now, with more time in the mission, recognize a ton of slang and swear words. Woo… those two guys really, really hated each other. Hahaha. Anyway, moving on. So, yesterday night, we went back over to their house. I went with one of the Assistants, Elder Pastrana. He has some real power when he teaches. It’s great. So we got there and challenged them to baptism this Friday, and they accepted! Now, tonight we have gotta go back and talk with the parents. They have talked with their parents, but we still want to go and explain more to them. The dad has always said that it’s their personal decision what they would like to do. So, we are preparing the baptismal service for Friday. Seeing that Saturday and Sunday is General Conference, we will confirm them as well that same day.
Wow, my 3rd general conference in the mission. That’s weird to think about. Only one left in April! Then, 3 months after that, I’m back! Way weird. But I’m stoked for this session of Conference. We're inviting a ton of investigators to listen to the words of modern day apostles and our beloved prophet Thomas S. Monson. It will sure be a treat to hear all of their words.
Mom, thanks so much for making some salsa just for me!! I’m sooooo excited to get that salsa. The camera too! Its weird to think that Eggleston is already going home. So weird… And, everyone is waiting with anticipation to see who will be the next assistant. Elder Huntsman, the current assistant, will be going home as well. There are a ton of north Americans coming in, so that’ll be fun to train them next week.
Whittaker's mom sent him some hair clippers so, were cutting our own hair now. 4 on top, 3 on the sides. I did it myself, too! Oh, and up till now on the mish, I've lost like 6-7 kilos. Something like 13-14 pounds. Crazy right? Today we will be playing soccer for 3 hours on a synthetic field here in Cusco. Always stoked to play!!
I'm really dedicating myself to seriously study the scriptures. I plan to have a firm knowledge and understanding of them by the time I get home. I hit 13 months this Saturday.
This month of September has been the best baptizing month our year-old mission has seen. Right now, we have 145 confirmations. We've never passed 150 yet, but this month is for sure that we will! So president is stoked, and he invited us to ceviche right now! YES.
Anyway, I love you all! Thanks so much for all you guys do for me. I appreciate it so much. I'm super happy here in the mish. "Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so." --Robert G. Ingersoll.
ELDER CHRISTENSEN
Secretario Financiero
Misión Perú Cuzco
(51) 984-503-861
(51) 084-242-521
RPM #623574
PS - The other pic is of the pizza we made at the family night!
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